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Sales in the residential segment declined four per cent to 263,720 units last year, the lowest since 2010, across eight major cities, according to a report by property consultant Knight Frank released on Thursday.
The National Capital Region (NCR) continued to be the worst performing market in India with sales and launches at a six-year low, according to the report.
Launches of new homes in residential space fell by 21 per cent in 2015 at 244,944 units in the primary market of eight major cities — NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Unsold inventories have declined marginally to 691,000 units from nearly 715,000 units in 2014. Developers would take more than 2.5 years to exhaust this unsold stock.
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Shishir Baijal, Knight Frank India chairman and managing director, said, “2015 for Indian real estate had both good and bad news. While the office market grew from strength to strength, residential did not perform as expected.”
“Sales in 2015 were lower than 2014 levels. Despite the 125 basis points rate cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), demand did not see an uptake. Our outlook for 2016 remains muted. To further revive demand, it is important to transmit the benefits of the rate cuts to consumers,” Baijal said.
In the Delhi-NCR market, housing sales fell marginally to 48,503 units in 2015 from 48,630 units in the previous year.
However, launches of new homes fell by 20 per cent to 63,458 units in NCR. The unsold inventory in NCR stands at 206,000 units at the end of 2015.
However, office space absorption stood at 40.4 million sq ft in six cities – Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune – the highest since 2012. Delhi-NCR witnessed absorption of 7.4 million sq ft of office space last year.
Rajeev Bairathi, executive director (North and Capital Markets) of the consultancy firm, said, “Supply of quality office space is now a concern with vacancy levels at an eight-year low. Rentals have firmed up as a result.”
Among sectors driving growth, IT/ITeS continues to lead with start-ups. "This year, however, we saw e-commerce and start-ups contribute to the office space uptake in a major way. Going forward, we have to wait to see if this trend continues," Bairathi said.
UNDER A CLOUD
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Sales in the residential segment stood at 263,720 units in 2015, the lowest since 2010
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Launches of new homes fell 21% to 244,944 units in the eight cities
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In Delhi-NCR, housing sales fell to 48,503 units from 48,630 in 2014
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Unsold inventories declined to 691,000 units from 715,000 in 2014
- Office space absorption stood at 40.4 million sq ft in Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, the highest since 2012
